The term “skin barrier” is widely used in the medical field to refer to any of a variety of sticky, pliant, moisture-absorbing, skinfriendly adhesive compositions commonly utilized in ostomy appliances and wound dressings. Most frequently, such a skin barrier composition constitutes a continuous adhesive phase with particles of one or more liquid-absorbing and swellable hydrocolloids dispersed throughout the adhesive and constituting a discontinuous phase. Such skin barriers are commonly used with ostomy appliances to seal the faceplates of such appliances against peristomal skin surfaces and thereby protect those surfaces from exposure to stomal effluent as well as to prevent leakage of such effluent from about the stoma-receiving openings of the pouches.
The initial tack of a hydrocolloid skin barrier material, usually referred to as “dry tack,” is provided by the continuous adhesive phase but, because such a skin barrier material is occlusive or non-breathable, adherence to the skin would be disrupted by perspiration and by liquid stomal discharge if it were not for the dispersed hydrocolloids which absorb fluids and thereby maintain and possibly enhance adhesive attachment to the skin. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,492,943 and 4,551,490 and other references disclose that suitable water-absorbing and swellable hydrocolloid gums commonly include hydrocolloids such as sodium carboxymethylcellulose, pectin, gelatin, guar gum, locust bean gum, gum karaya, and mixtures thereof. The elastomers used in the continuous phase commonly include polyisobutylenes with which additives such as butyl rubber may be blended. The references also disclose that the elastomeric phase may contain a styrene block copolymer component to help provide extensibility and recoverability from modular strains to the composition. In addition, such skin barrier compositions may include mineral oil, to increase stretchability and adhesiveness of the blend, and suitable tackifying agents and antioxidants.
Skin barrier materials are not only used for ostomy care but also more generally for wound care. Such barrier materials may constitute the skin-contacting layers of relatively flat wafers or discs to be used as wound dressings or as the adhesive sealing rings for helping to secure ostomy pouches in place. Caulking rings and strips of relatively soft hydrocolloid materials such as karaya are commonly added to the skin barrier surfaces of planar faceplates to help ensure effective non-irritating seals directly about patients' stomas. Hydrocolloid-containing pastes are often used for a similar purpose, although such pastes are sometimes objectionable because of the irritation produced by their volatile solvents (usually alcohol).
The term “skin barrier” may also include the class of pliant, skinfriendly, moisture-absorbent materials commonly referred to as hydrogels. Hydrogels are known that also have adhesive characteristics, and such adherent hydrogels are also believed suitable for use in fabricating the skin barrier strips of this invention.
The present invention takes the form of an elongate rectilinear strip of skin barrier material that may be cut to desired length and formed, stretched and/or molded by a user into a generally circular shape or into some other shape that extends about and follows the outline of a wound or stoma. Alternatively, smaller portions of the strip may be torn or cut away and molded between the fingers for insertion into spaces between skin folds and other surface irregularities where fluid leakage might otherwise occur. In a preferred embodiment, the strip may be formed of a pliant skin barrier material that is non-flowable, so that when the strip is formed into a ring it may serve at least to a limited extent as a convex pressure ring about a stoma or wound.
A characterizing feature is that the strip is of generally triangular cross section and, more specifically, has the cross section of a triangle with at least two, and preferably three, unequal sides. A user desiring to form such strip into a ring to be interposed between the skin and the surface of a wound dressing or ostomy faceplate therefore has the option of forming rings of at least two, and preferably three, different levels of projection depending on which of the strip's side surfaces is coplanar with, and sealed to, the barrier surface of the dressing or faceplate.